CAC40: down slightly, quiet week ahead

(CercleFinance.com) - The Paris stock market lost 0.
1% this morning, around 7,260 points, penalized by declines in Vivendi (-1%) and St-Gobain (-1%) at the start of what promises to be a quiet week, with few major indicators on the agenda.

The themes that continue to preoccupy the markets are now well known: on the one hand, the effect of Trump's election, weak demand from China and disparate corporate comments on the third quarter", point out Edmond de Rothschild's teams.

"On this last point, more than half the companies in the STOXX 600 have published their results, and only a few sectors have surprised positively on average", stresses the private bank.

Barclays' strategists point out that European companies reported average earnings per share (EPS) growth of 3% in the third quarter, compared with 7% for their US counterparts.

The 'Trump Trade' - which carried Wall Street in the wake of the November 5 presidential election - nevertheless seems to have run out of steam last week.

After surging by 5% to 6% in the sessions following the election, the major New York indices gave up between 1% and 3% last week, worried about the repercussions of the next US president's policies.

Investors fear that the pro-business approach advocated by the real estate magnate will lead to a resurgence in inflation, which could cause the Fed to slow down its rate cuts.

The economic agenda promises to be light this week, with the main event set for Friday with the publication of the European flash PMI indices.

These data will enable us to gauge the reaction of European companies to Donald Trump's recent victory and their feelings regarding the possible introduction of tariffs likely to penalize their business.

Against this backdrop, all eyes should be on Wednesday evening's results from Nvidia, now the world's largest listed company ahead of Apple.

The AI chipmaker's performance could help revive a technology segment that has been losing momentum of late (-1.6% for the S&P sector index over the past month).

Analysts covering the stock are expecting a publication comparable to its latest announcements, i.e. better-than-expected accounts accompanied by an increase in targets, especially as the semiconductor designer is now starting to capitalize on the recent launch of its new architecture, dubbed 'Blackwell'.

In other French company news, Orange has announced that it is appealing the seizure of 312 million euros on October 7 by the French National Financial Prosecutor's Office (Parquet national financier - PNF) in connection with a dispute over VAT rates applied to certain promotional offers between 2017 and 2019.

Vivendi reports that Canal+ is holding a Capital Markets Day on Monday, at which it will present its strategy and ambitions in the run-up to its admission to the London Stock Exchange, scheduled for December 16.

Finally, La Française des Jeux (FDJ) reports that it has successfully placed its inaugural bond issue for 1.5 billion euros, in three tranches of 500 million each maturing in six, nine and 12 years, and with annual coupons of 3.000%, 3.375% and 3.625%.

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